The System book 1 : The Begining
by Dr. Creepergirl
Summary: Set before the events of maximum ride this shows a story on how one man will get back his sister no matter what.


Prologue

 **S** **top! This book can put you into danger so proceed at your own risk!**

Ok now with that warning is over I'm John. Some people better know me as Test Subject 425f. I'm 6'2'' and tanned from all the sun I have been in. I have black hair and dark blue eyes. There is one more thing about me that is not natural. I have wings. Yes I have bird wings. My DNA was mixed with a birds so I have 98% human DNA and 2% bird by these horrible people called The School. I also have a sister. She is 16, 5' 8'' and slightly tanned skin. She has brown hair and green eyes. Her name is Rose. We don't have last names because when I was 2 and she was a baby we were kidnapped by The School. Our parents put up a fight and were killed right in front of me. They took us to The School, put us into small cages, and injected bird DNA into us. When my wings were fully grown they put something in me that let's me evolve to my situation. After that they shoved me into a maze called Demon's Run and made me run until I couldn't stand then injected me with adrenaline and made me run more. I finally got out with my sister at 17 and now we live out in the city blending in.

Chapter 1

The Party

"RUN." It's all I'm thinking "Run faster...get away...go go go go."

I trip over a large branch and there a sharp pain in my right leg. I grab it and a warm liquid ran onto my hand.

"What is that?" I say to myself lifting my hand. It was crimson red.

"Crap" I think as I try to get up. I successfully stand up and I start hearing dogs. I hated the dogs. I start to hobble away

"Faster" I wince talking to myself "I need to go faster."

I see a cliff. Just what I need. I make my way to the cliff as the dogs coming up on my position and as they clear the bush behind me I jump off and let myself fall.

"Three, two, one" I think

At one I quickly open my wings. I wince as the updraft pulls me up forcefully. I steady out and start to fly shots whizzing by me from the soldiers on the cliff.

"Note to self: Don't suddenly open wings" I think as there is a red dot appeared on my chest and I hear the crack of a bullet.

I wake up with a start and for a moment everything was silent. Then I grab my leg as it was cramping. I check to see if it was actually shot but luckily it wasn't.

"That why I thought I was shot." I think as I hold my leg through the cramp and it quickly goes away.

I stand up my leg now sore from the cramp. It was quiet...too quiet. I quickly concentrate on one of my evolution powers, life force detection, and I didn't pick up anyone.

"Hmm maybe she went to go get something." I say to myself as I walk to my door

I open my door and multiple colored balloons fall onto me with a note on the plastic sheet reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" in multiple colors. I could hear laughing from the living room in our tiny apartment as my sister, Rose, runs up laughing.

"Happy Birthday big brother" She says still giggling

"Oh yeah i'm 18 now" I think as I say "Thank you but please don't do that again."

I walk back into my room and grab my knife on my nightstand. I walk up to the plastic sheet and make a large slit down the middle of it stepping out.

"Big Brother" Rose complains as she starts to take down the plastic "You're so wasteful"

I walk into the living room and flop down on the understuffed couch with a grunt and think "I'm going to need to restuff this"

My sister walks in and says "Stay there I'm going to make breakfast"

I jumped up because she was never a good cook. I start to walk into the kitchen but she hits me with a spoon and pushes me out

"Don't worry I have been practicing." she says as she walks back in "You just lay down and rest for a little bit."

"I do not wish to die on my birthday." I say from on the couch and she walks in and smacks me with the spoon

"I won't kill you!" she says as she hastily walks back into the kitchen

I lay on the couch just day dreaming and thinking of what I have to do today and she comes out with a platter of pancakes and eggs. They looked good. They weren't burnt or underdone. I take a sniff of the food and it smelled good so I take a small bite and to my surprised they were not half bad.

"Not bad" I say taking another bite

"I told you so" She says with a smile "I've been practicing. So what do you want to do today?"

I think for a moment and say "First I want to restuff this couch and...:"

" **NO** your not doing work on your birthday" she says cutting me off

I roll over to look at her "Then what do you have in store for me"

She opens her mouth but stops and thinks for a moment "We could go to the boardwalk or like an amusement park. Seriously, you should stop working so much."

"Well work has to get done some time." I say rolling over

She jumps onto me "But you work all of the time John. Every day it: 'Oh I need to go to work' or 'Oh let me finish this one project.' You need to get out and have some fun"

"Well I do have some fun" I pause for a second "Sometimes."

She pulls me up and shoves me into my room saying "Get dressed we are going to the boardwalk"

I sigh and close my door. I sit for a moment but I get up to the thought of having some fun. I open my drawer and pull out some normal clothes, jeans and a tee shirt, I slip them on. I grab my phone from my nightstand drawer unplugging it from the charger and my knife from the top of the nightstand putting them in my pockets and Rose knocks on the door.

"Big Brother are you ready!?" she says still knocking

I open the door as she is still knocking and say "Yeah yeah stop banging on my door"

She smiles as she has gotten dressed in also normal clothes. I smile a bit, grab a cap and walk out of the door to the truck parked out in the parking lot. She follows and gets into the passenger side. She buckles in and gives me a nod. I back out and drive to the boardwalk

Chapter 2

The Taken

I park in the parking lot of the boardwalk. I really didn't want to do this but since Rose, who was already out, forced me to do this I played along.

"Hurry up Big Brother!" she yells at me through the window

I unbuckle myself and get out locking the truck afterwards. I walk to her and stand next to her.

"Well you pulled me here let's go" I say looking at her

"Yay let's go!" She says running to the boardwalk

"Hey wait up." I say running after her

We get onto the boardwalk and of course the first thing Rose sees is the candy store. She loved candy very much. She runs into the candy giggling and I sit on a bench next to the candy store with a sigh. I look around as people walk by and one girl's bags rip and all of the items fall to the floor. I get up and start to pick them up

"Let me help you with that." I say and as I look up to give her the items our eyes meet

"Th-th-thank you" she says blushing as she takes the items

Rose walks out and walks up to me and says "Big brother I need to ask you a favor"

The woman walks away quickly as I turn around and say "What do you need me to do?"

Rose looks down and puts her hands behind her back "I need you to pay for the candy"

I sigh and smile "Even on my birthday I still have to pay for something of yours."

I walk in and walk up to the cashier and say "How much is it?"

"20 dollars" the cashier says  
I pull out my wallet and pull out a 20 handing it to the cashier "Here you go"

I survey the candy as the cashier puts away the money. She loved a lot of different candies and I see some of the best pure chocolate. I put the candies in the bag and walk out. She takes the bag and I slip my hand in grabbing the chocolate.

"Oh chocolate you shouldn't have" I say sarcastically and she looks at me with angry eyes

"Well I didn't." She takes the chocolate and puts it back in the bag "It was for me."

I take it out again and say "Well I did pay for you."

She frowns knowing she was beat and gave the chocolate to me. I smile unwrapping it and start to eat it. I give her a little square

"Here that's for the kindness." I say and put it in her hand her face lights up quickly

She quickly eats the piece and we start to walk down the boardwalk once again. We soon came to a pier and we look out on the pier for a while and we turn around.

"Let's get home" I say as I turn around and yawn "I'm getting tired"

Rose yawns "Me too" She climbs onto my back and I carry her

Suddenly a bright flash happens and I get shot in the leg for real this time. I hear my sister scream as my eyes go back to normal brightness. I see her getting taken away from me by people in military uniforms, The School, I try to get up but immediately fall over due to the shot in my leg. I keep trying to get up and go to her as they get away. They get into a helicopter and fly off and I pound the board walk hard enough to make some cracks. I lift my fist up to show multiple bloody splinters in my hand. I start to pull them out and people start to crowd around me. I never liked the attention of people so I get up wincing on the way up and I walk towards my truck. As I walk through the crowd one of the guys decided to kick my leg making me fall again. I roll over and kick his shin hard and he falls over screaming.

I finally get to my truck as my leg was about to give out and I slide in.

"I need to treat this" I say as I grab my bag out from the back seat

I pull out a belt, some rubbing alcohol, tweezers and a tampon. Since I was military trained by The School I knew how to deal with this kind of wound. I first put the belt in my mouth because it was my bite guard. I take the rubbing alcohol and pour it on my wound biting on the mouth guard to the sting. I carefully push the tweezers in and grab out the bullet in my leg. I throw it out of the window and shove the tampon into the wound.

"There now just need to bandage it." I say as I take out bandages

I wrap my leg in the bandage and set the bandaging aside. The next thought that popped into my head is my sister being taken and I start pounding on the steering wheel to get out my frustration.

"Why would they do a move like that?" I say

My phone rings so I look at the number and it says burner phone.

I pick up saying "Hello who is this."

"You want her back right?"

I get serious "Who are you and what have you done with my sister?"

"Oh I think you know exactly who we are."

"Why have you taken my sister?"

"You got it wrong; we are asking question and you're going to answer them and maybe your sister will live."

I aggressively shift in my truck as I say "You or any of your crew members go as far as to touch her I will personally kill you myself."

"Touchy touchy. Now where are you?"

"I'm right where you left me."

"How is your leg?"

"Since you shot it it's ok"

"Oh how nice. You know where we are?"

"No. I didn't see where you went" That was a half lie as I would track the call soon

"Do you know who we are?"

"Yeah your The School and I am coming for you."

He laughs and hangs up. I quickly tap on my phone until it's says tracking call. I wait for a moment as it processes and I set it down because my phone heats up when I do this. It shows a map and a ping sends out from the middle of the ocean.

"I got you now" I smile as I get out and take my phone

I run for a while and stop as I reach the end of the pier. I never liked swimming so I look around but still too many people.

I wait for a moment to look at my phone and I angle myself for a straight swim to the pinging location. I jump in and start to swim slowly. As I got closer to the location I started to swim faster. I get right on top of it and I don't see anything around me. I look down at the water and there is a darker spot.

"Gotcha." I say

I swim underwater down to a submarine. I look at the name and it says The Somber Rower. I swim around the submarine and I find a hatch in the painting. I swim down to it and pop it open the flow of water pulls me into the airlock. I close the airlock and I find myself running out of breath so I start mashing the buttons on the wall and then lights come on and the water level recedes. I quickly swim up to the top of the airlock taking a deep and needed breath. The water fullys recedes and I open the other airlock door. I look around for any guards and amazingly there was none that I saw. It was really dark though. I walk forwards a little bit trying to look for a light switch and something quickly fastens around my leg.

"It's a trap" I say as it start to shock me

I quickly go unconscious because electricity was one of my weaknesses. I hear some laughing and I get moved.

I wake up with a start. I'm on a cold metal table. I try to lift my arms up but they stop because they were chained to the table. I try tugging on the chains some but they don't really budge too much. I look around and I see a tray full of items. I can't really make out what the items are but I think I see a scapul and a syringe and a hammer. My mind starts to run. Where am I, Why am I on this table, Where is my sister, What are they going to do to me, How did I get here. Someone walks in wearing the normal lab coat. He was obviously part of The School. He looks at me and laughs.

"What? Fallen into a NIGHTMARE!" He says in front of my face

He walks to the tray and picks up some tweezers. He cleans them off and starts walking towards me. He stops 3 feet in front of me and smiles.

"Oh we are going to have some fun today, yeah." He says as he rubs the tweezers on my face

I struggle a little bit "What are you going to do to me. Kill me?"

He just smiles and says "Oh I'm not going to kill you...oh no no. I'm going to seriously maim you and then let you heal and then seriously maim you again and let you heal and then seriously maim you again and let you heal."

I pull on my chains hard in fear as I realize he is going to torture me. He walks above my head and crouches down.

"Now let's work with those eyebrows." He says as he plucks one "You know I have a girlfriend and I don't know if she loves me so." He plucks another "She loves me." He plucks another "She loves me not" He plucks another "She loves me." He plucks another "She loves me not" He pluck one last one "SHE LOVES ME."

The pain to me was bearable since it was just eye brow hairs. He tosses the tweezers and moves my table so I'm laying vertical. I pull on the chains more. He leaves the room. Now is my chance. During his eyebrow plucking time I was able to unlock the lock for the chains. I take off the lock and unchain myself. I quickly go up to the tray and look at the contents. A hammer, a syringe, a scalpel, some tongs, a test tube, a needle, and a gutting knife. I grab the gutting knife and quickly hide as I hear the door open again.

"Hello my little test subject." He says carrying a circular saw "It's time for your autopsy."

He walks up to the table and sees that I'm gone and he drops the saw. Great now is my chance. I quietly walk up to him and in one quick motion I slit his throat. He falls over and tries to grab the saw but he dies before he can.

I laugh a little "You underestimated me"

I walk out of the door and quickly to the room across the hall as a guard walks up. I enter the room and lucky me there was 5 guards waiting there. They make a commotion and quickly aim and open fire. For a moment everything was smoke, bullets and flashes. They let it clear up and I'm there with my wings in front of me. I only had a scratch on my face and multiple "dents" in my wings. I move my wings and lunge towards them while smashed bullets fly off of them. I quickly take them down. I look around and I find my things.

I smile and say "Great now I'm back"

I grab my things and take a look at the map. It plainly read where the cells are and where the boss is. I take a picture with my phone and I look around the place for another way out because I wasn't just going to go walking down the hallways and I see an air vent.

"Even better." I say

I open my wings and fly up to the air vent. I open it up and climb in. I start crawling around and I look at my phone, which was the only light in the air vent and I look at the map.

"I want to go there." I say as I point at the cell blocks "Then I'll mess with him"

Surprisingly to me the vents completely followed the hallways and I make it to the cell blocks easily. I drop down and look into the cells and see no one then someone comes up from behind me clapping.

"Bravo...bravo." He says smirking "You really fell into this trap."

I quickly spin around to face him "Who the hell are you and what have you done with my sister?!"

He smiles and shakes his head and slowly says "Oh John, John, John. You don't remember me?" He snaps his fingers and the lights turn on showing many guards with tasers ready "I'm Robert, but you might know me as Dr. Log" He smiles devilishly

My mind snaps into overdrive searching for a Dr. Log that I remember and I shake my head "I never knew you."

He sighs and shakes his head "Whatever but I do know where your sister is."

I give him an angry look and try to advance but I remember the guards around me so I stay still "Where is she?"

He laughs "Oh don't worry...You'll be joining her soon" He snaps his fingers and the guards fire

I scream in agony as I go down.

Chapter 3

The Ally

I wake up again with sweat running down my face. The walls and floor was black and made out of stone cold concrete. I was cold, trembling and in fear. I already knew where I was. I was in Demon's Run.

I get up and lean against the wall. I was weak, cold, and fearful because if you make a wrong turn in the endless maze that is Demon's Run you fall deeper into the maze. I take a few breaths. I look around to see if I have anything and I empty my pockets showing everything I have. A needle, a protein bar, a paper, a used toothpick and about $5.82 in cash. This wasn't going to help much. I get up and take a few deep breaths for two reasons. One, to calm myself down as I was almost hyperventilating and two, to see if there was any life forms in my area. I calm down a bit and focus and tracking any life forms but the walls were too thick to see through. I had to go.

"Ok...you're fine you just need to get to the end of this maze...but how am I going to get through this...well I've done it once before...that was pure luck...just get through this maze for Rose." I say to myself as it echos through the maze

I take a step forwards and it doesn't do anything. I take a sigh of relief and start to walk forwards and I take a right. The floor falls out from under me and I fall a level. I land on some mattresses and the hatch quickly closes on me. I couldn't fly back through the hatch as the hatch was magnetically locked and will shock anyone who tampers with it. I get up and sigh. I look around for the staircase back up and I see it on the opposite end of the lower maze. I start to walk again and I hear the echoing of someone crying. The voice seemed autonomous and without a specific gender. I decide to check it out and something flashes in my mind. West, west, north, east, east, west, east, west, north. I come up to a cross-roads. I think and decide to turn left or as my mind reads it west. The floor doesn't fall though so I start to follow the road map my head has placed before me and in the middle I see this man curled up in a ball crying. The autonomous crying. I get closer and the person lunges at me with a makeshift knife. I back up and step to the side. He steps to the path behind me and falls through the floor. I keep going and finally I make it to the stair case. I walk up to the main floor maze and I think for a moment. It once again popped in my mind North, North, North, East, South, West, North, West, West, South, East. I start to walk again. My mind is racing on what's at the end of the maze.

"Last time the exit almost killed me." I say to myself

That wasn't reassuring at all. I make it to the end expecting the worse and of course the worse happens. I was met with about 5 gaurds all equipped with taser guns. I close my eyes as they fire and surprisingly I don't get hit. I open my eyes to see that all the taser lines has came up short about 3 inches. I laugh a little bit in astonishment. They immediately pull their guns and open fire, so I do what I do best. I make cover with my wings but a bullet nicks my right arm before I could cover it. I wince a little bit but I wait until they run out of ammo. I come out of cover and shake off the smashed bullet heads. I charge the guards tackling them and taking all out in one shot. A C4 block falls off one of their vest and I immediately pick it up.

"Yes just what I need." I exclaim as get up knocking on the walls until I find a solid wall out of all the hollow walls. I plant the C4 to the solid wall. It explodes sending a large hole into the wall. I go through the hole and immediately fall down to the ocean. I open my wings and swoop upwards topping off at about the height that I dropped from. I start to fly and they open fire. Soon the whole facility was on full alert and I hear them pulling out the heavy guns. They start to fire the 50 caliber bullets, the one thing my wings won't deflect. I start to swerve to dodge the bullets. I do a great job on dodging most of the bullets except for one. It makes contact in my right wing punching a large hole into my wing, measuring about 5 inches in diameter, I was going down. For a second I stay up then my right wings tips downwards. I try to pull it back up but I was spiraling downwards with no way to get back up. For a second everything was quiet. All gunfire has stopped and I was in freefall.

"Is this where I die?" I ask myself inside of my head "Is this were my journey ends to me plummeting to my death?"

"No, I refuse this death. I refuse to die like this, not here not now." I answer myself as I stop trying to fly and dive into the water below

I stay under for a while waiting for everyone to leave. I stay just under the surface. I stay under for quite a while. My vision starts to get blurry and darkens and I come up taking a deep breath of air. I quickly look around for any sort of land and I see a small island about 30 feet out to sea. It's the best thing that I have. I start to do a slow swim to the island and I climb up the rocky shore of it. I lay down for a little bit and take a breath. I look back out at the ocean and there is a wavy red line of blood. I look at my wing and slowly open it wincing every now and then.

"Yeap I'm not flying any time soon." I say to myself as I poke around the hole

I stand up as I look back at the complex.

"She wasn't there." I say to myself with a small smile but it melts away quickly as I start to think "If she isn't there then where is she?" and "Maybe she was there and she died and I'm doing this for nothing."

"STOP" I tell myself "Don't over think this"

For a moment I pace on the rocky island thinking then I hear a siren. I quickly look at the complex but it wasn't coming from there.

"PLEASE GET OFF OF THE ROCKS HIGH TIDE IS COMING IN. REPEAT, PLEASE GET OFF THE ROCKS HIGH TIDE IS COMING IN." some coast guard on a boat tells me from a megaphone

I wave my arms and gesture for him to come over to me. He comes over because of his obligation.

"Could you give me a ride to the shore, please?" I ask him politely trying my best to hide my wings

"Yeah get on" He moves the boat for me to board

I get on and he quickly takes it back to shore.

"Why were you on the rock when you need me to get you back?" He asks me on the way to the shore

"It's a long and very boring story." I say almost bluntly

He nods and we arrive at the shore. I've gotten my wings tucked back into my shirt and I get off and quickly blend in with the crowd that is commuting further from the rising water line. I walk past all of them and then check what I have in my pockets. I take everything out. A phone, 50 cents in quarters, a shell that apparently fell in. I try to turn on the phone but it leaked water so it wasn't turning on any time soon. I toss the shell out onto the sand and look for a pay phone. There was one a couple feet away so I walk up to it.

"Who should I call. I couldn't call any police forces because they are with them." I say to myself as I put in the quarters "Oh yeah, Nono should be able to help me."

I punch in a number and pick up the handset putting it up to my wet face. Ring, ring, ring.

"Pick up the phone, pick up the phone" I whisper to myself

He picks up the phone "Hello? This is Novanje." he answers

"Hey Nono it's me." I say shakily as I start to shiver getting cold

"J-John is that you?" He says a little surprised

"Yeah it's me" I cough lightly "I need you to pick me up."

"Sure where are you?"

"Umm I'm at…" I look around and see a sign reading: Pismo Beach "Pismo Beach"

"What really why and how the hell did you get there?"

"It's a long story...just can you pick me up?"

"Sure I could get there in at least 20 minutes."

"Also it would be nice if I could get some dry cloths."

"Really how...you know what I'm not going to ask. I'll be there in 20"

"Thanks" I hang up

I sit on a bench and wrap my arms in front of my chest now shaking in coldness. I look down the road seeing multiple cars pass by but none of them was Nono's. As I watch down the street a towel is draped over me. I quickly turn around to look to see who was behind me. I turn around and see a woman in a bikini. She looked about my age with brown straight hair and blue eyes like mine. She shifts her weight weight to one leg and puts her hands on her hips.

"You're going to get a cold if you stay out here wet like that." She says with a little bit of attitude

"Didn't think I was going into the water." I respond

I shouldn't have said this because instead of being apathetic to it she sat next to me and looked at me confused and interested.

"How could you not expect to get into the water when you're on the beach?" she says sitting close to me

"Well it's a long story." I say in all desperation to get out of this conversation but in vain as she scoots a little closer

"Tell me I have time." She says with a smile "I really want to know."

I sigh and think "Crap I can't tell her the truth but I probably won't make a good enough lie...I don't know what to say"

"Well I came with my friends and as I was sleeping in the sand they decided it was going to be fun to pick me up and throw me into the water." I say a little quick and think "Come on Novanje hurry up."

She sits up "BS...You wouldn't be this soaked just by a simple toss into the ocean." She grabs my sleeve and wrings it and it tears off. Her face goes from planning to terror, "OH MY GOD I'M SOO SORRY!"

"No problem" I sigh lightly and utter

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO THIS AT ALL" She drops the strip and starts to freak out

"Shut up!" I say as I start to get ticked "I really don't care about the shirt"

She stops and looks at me in disgust and says "Did you just tell me to 'shut up'? Do you even know me?"

"No I don't but I don't need more freaking out."

"Any more?" She says slowly and curiously

I sigh and think "Great I've blew it now" and I utter "Yeah it's my birthday and it's not the being the best day ever."

As I say this a car pulls up in front of me and the window is rolled down. A black guy with green eyes and short curly hair yells at me "Hey you coming"

I look at him "Oh Nono you're here"

"Wait! What?!" The woman looks around confused

I turn to her and hand her the towel "Thanks for the hospitality" and I quickly jump into the car and head off

She quickly gets up and jumps into her car following us. I looked behind us every now and then to see her doing this.

"We need to lose her" I tell Novanje

"Who?" He says looking in the rear view mirror

"The car behind us. It's been following us since the beach."

"Oh I see." He nods and turns onto a narrow sidestreet

She also turns onto the side street. We swerve around going on streets and alleyways and we lose her.

"Great job Nono!" I smile and yell at him

"No problem." He says triumphantly and goes back onto the main street

I reach into my pocket to give him some money but there was none there and i think "Oh yeah the water" I turn to him and say "I would give you some money right now but it seems like it was destroyed."

"No problem I don't mind filling this thing up."

I get out of the car and say to him "Thanks for the ride again."

"No problem. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah later." I say as I walk inside and close the door

I slide down the door in a sigh. I look around the room; it looked empty. Flashes of Rose trying to cook and her sitting on the couch watching tv comes to me. She looks at me.

"There you are." She says but it's not her voice

I snap out of it and I see the woman from the beach and I jump up moving towards my room.

"W-W-What are you doing here?"

"Well I followed you dummy" she gets up and walks towards me

"H-H-How did you get into my house it was locked."

She holds up the spare key I keep in a fake cactus "You really need to hide this better"

I fall back onto the floor feet from my room "Are you here to hurt me"

She looks at me in disgust "No I came here to get answers."

I think "Great she wants answers" and I get up "Well there is no answers here"

I grab my door knob and she follows me. I head into the room and go to the bed falling back and she comes right after me.

"I know you have answers for me." she says walking slowly towards me

I keep climbing over the bed "No there is no answers here!"

She stops in the doorway "Yes you do and I want them so you're not leaving until I get them"

I reach into my nightstand drawer and feel around "There it is" I pull out a small glock 18 out of the drawer I keep there for emergencies. I get up and point it at her

"Get out of the way." I say assertively

"No…" she looks at me and sees the gun "...n-not until I get some answers. You won't shoot me."

I cock the gun "You feel lucky?"

She stays there completely quiet and I shoot just above her ear and she jumps ducking down

"YOU ALMOST SHOT ME!" She says staying in a ball

"That was your warning shot now get out of the way and leave." I say gun still pointed at her

She quickly gets up and runs out of the apartment.

I put the safety on and put it away "There she is gone" I walk into the living room and sit on the couch "She wasn't in Demon's Run." I put my head in my hands "Where is she?" I try to review the evidence in my head and I sit up "She has to be on the complex but I didn't see her."

I pull out an Ipad that I have in the coffee table and open up a schematic of a warehouse "I need to get one of the uniforms for the guards there."

"Really?" Someone in a familiar voice says behind me

I quickly turn around and it was the woman from the beach again

I stand up turning off the Ipad "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU SCRAM"

She backs up "Yeah I know I know but I put some connections together."

"Like what?"

"Well if you didn't shoot me when you had the chance I don't think you had the intent of shooting me."

"And…"

"Well there is another room that has girl stuff but there is no girl in this house so something happened to her."

"She is at school"

She shakes her head "Nope her backpack it still here"

I sit down "Anything else"

She walks around "Well from the schematic you were looking at you seem to be planning some sort of heist and it sounds like an adventure and damn it I want in!" She sits next to me "So spill. What you are doing?"

I stand up again "How do I know you're not a spy for them!?"

She stands up "Because I don't know who is them!"

I finally give up "You know what fine you win you're in but you need to do what I say when I say it regardless of what it is."

She sits next to me "YEAY!"

I think for a moment "To show that you will remain loyal I need you to do one thing."

She leans into me "Yes what is it."

I smile "Make me a sandwich."

She looks at me in disgust "Really I'm not…"

I look at her "Regardless of what it is."

She pouts and gets up to make a sandwich for me "I'm going to make one for myself as well so bleah" She sticks my tongue at me

I chuckle lightly as I turn back on the Ipad and she walks back in "Here is your sandwich"

I smile at her "Thank you. So this is the schematic for a warehouse that holds the suits the security guards of a place I need to get into."

She studies it closely "Yes and what do we need in there?"

"A security guard suit."

"You mean 2 of them." She looks at me

"Yeah 2 of them."

"How are we going to get in there...we can't just walk into the front door."

I smile "It's not how we are getting in it's how are you getting in."

She looks at me surprised "You're going to immediately send me into enemy territory."

"I'm not throwing you into enemy territory naked"

She thinks for a second "Oh I have an idea." She smiles brightly "It'll get us through the front door."

"You're not going naked." I say rather bluntly

She laughs "No my friend but that was my second choice."

"Ok what is it then?"

"We can sneak into one of the trucks that go in and out of the facility."

"How the hell will we pull that off?"

"I know how they look and all we need to do is just to jump into one as it passes by."

"Sounds like a deathwish"

"It sounds like fun"

I sigh as I look at my options "Fine but you're getting in and getting the suits. I'm going to be get away."

She jumps up "Then we have no time to lose."

Chapter 4

The Plan

We stand on a roof and the wind is blowing hard. We can barely hear each other.

"Remember all you need to do is get two suits and get out!" I yell to her

She nods "Yeah. Who do I call you by?"

"John" I yell back at her "And you"

"Mia" She smile as she spots a truck "Get ready!"

The truck starts to pass and we jump in not getting spotted "It worked"

She smiles triumphantly "I TOLD you it would work"

I sit back as we keep moving "It should be for too long"

She blushes slightly looking at me then scoots back to the other wall "y-y-yeah"

I look at her "What's wrong?"

She quickly looks up "N-n-nothing. You should get ready to get off because this leads straight into the warehouse"

I nod as I hop out rolling on the ground sprinting off and getting to my point and I watch the truck disappear into the warehouse "You better be who I think you are."

I sit there for a while then I hear alarms go off "She set off the alarms did she." I sigh as I start to unrestrain my wings "Come get me Mia"

I stand there for a while and then I hear her voice "JOHN!" She yells as she is running up the hill

I beckon her over "Come on hurry" I have my arm open ready to grab her "You got the suits right"

She nods and gets to me looking around "Where is the car?"

"Who said there was going to be a car?" I grab her waist

She blushes brightly "W-W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

I rip my shirt by unfolding my wings and I take off pulling her with me and holding her under me after I level off "Who said there was going to be a car?"

She looks up at me brushing her hair out of the way and blushing "Umm I-I-I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything." I smile at her "Just enjoy the ride. You got the suits?"

She nod and set the suits on her chest "They are very odd suits though"

I shrug "It's unique." I land down on the floor of the apartments, letting her go and folding up my wings

She looks at me very dazed and confused "S-s-s…"

I cover her mouth "Not here" I walk into my apartment

She follows with me and sits down "WHEN DID YOU GET WINGS!"

I quickly cover her mouth again "Not so loud these walls are thin"

She moves my hand "Sorry. When did you get wings."

"I had them forever." I sigh a little bit "I've been cursed with them"

"Cursed?" She grabs my wings "These are blessings."

"Yes it's a blessing that it took weeks of pain for this and now I'm hunted."

She covers her mouth "H-h-hunted?"

I facepalm myself "Now I've said too much"

She pushes me on the couch "Ok you need to tell me the whole truth right now." She crosses her arms and stands in front of me

I get up "You don't need to know the whole truth."

"Who was the ones that got the suits?" She gets in my face

"You." I don't budge a bit

"Who came with the idea to jump into the trucks?" She says getting more angry

"Who got you out of the grips of those guards?" I say to stop her

She stops for a second "You but who followed you home and stood in danger to get an adventure."

"Who was dumb enough to do so?" I say almost yelling

She looks at me in disgust "Dumb? I AM NOT DUMB! I followed you because I had a feeling that you would need help and I wanted to go on an adventure!"

"Well your want for an adventure can end up getting you killed."

She stops and backs up a little bit "K-k-killed?"

"Yes murdered and that's IF you're lucky." I say advancing

She falls back onto the couch behind her "You never told me this"

"I thought that me almost shooting you would have told you."

She starts to tear up and she brings her knees to her chest "I-I-I-I don't want to die." She starts to cry

I sigh and lower my voice "Hey don't cry" I sit next to her "I said that because it's true. I don't even know how long I myself have to live."

She looks at me with teary eyes and then hugs me crying into my chest "I-I-I don't want you to die either." She shakes slightly as she cries into me

I look down at her "Why don't you want me to die. I'm a monster, a monstrosity."

She looks up at me with a slight blush and she slaps me "You don't say that about yourself"

"It's true" I stand up and pull off my shirt showing her my wings "How many other people have these?"

She turns me around "No one and it makes you special."

I look at her and blush lightly "What do you mean?"

She stands there a little bit "Your something different. I like different." She gets on her tippy toes and kisses me and quickly breaking off and backing up "S-sorry."

I stand there stunned and my mouth moves to talk but nothing comes out

She giggles lightly "Was that your first kiss."

I nod as I pull on my shirt and walk to my room

She giggles again and sits down

I walk back out in new clothes "Tomorrow we will continue our adventure." I sit down

She looks at me "John. Can you tell me everything now."

"Mia, you don't mind if I call you Mia thanks, you really don't need to know everything."

She sits up even more angry than before "WHY DON'T I"

I sigh "We have already been through this you don't need to know because it'll put you…" I think for a moment "You know what. Do you really want to know?"

"Uhh yeah that's why I was asking." She sits back

"Well I was kidnapped at the age of 2 years old. They took me and my sister killing my parents. They took me and her and put us in small cages and injected us with bird DNA so we grew wings. After we fully grew our wings they tapped into our evolution part of our brain and we gained abilities. I got the power of tracking people and she gain the power to block other powers. They threw us into a labyrinth called demon's run. They forced us to run but somehow I got out and I took Rose and I escaped from the place." I say in one breath

She tears up a bit more "I'm so sorry."

I look away "Don't start crying on me"

She shakes her head "Nope I'm not crying" She quickly wipes up her tears

"Good" I stand up "Let's get to work" I smile and grab one of the suits "I'm going to try this on"

She nod and watches me walk back

I get into the room and start to change "Hmm these seem a bit big." I put it on and zip it up and i notice a button on my hip "What's this do" I push it and the suit shrinks down to my size and I jump then laugh lightly "One size fits all."

I walk out and show Mia "It's an interesting suit." I toss her one of the suits "Put one on." She takes it and walks into the room

"HEY IT'S A BIT BIG!" She yells at me

"THERE IS A BUTTON ON THE HIP!" I yell back

I hear her scream lightly and then she laughs then she comes back out

"You like it?" I ask her with a small chuckle

She nod "Yes it's a one size fits all suit" She laughs lightly

"Let's keep going then" I smile and take out the iPad again and I notice I have a missed call on Facetime. I quickly open it up and look at the message and it was from a unknown person. I start the video feed and there was Rose's face on the screen

She smiles lightly even though there was a bleeding cut on her head "Come get me" She says in a hoarse whisper then she hangs up

I smile back at the iPad "I know where she is" I tap on the iPad more and set it down as it starts to retrieve the signal from somewhere

Sharna walks up "Where is she"

The iPad pings and I look at it "San Francisco ,California" I say in a sigh "Great a road trip."

Sharna seemed happy about this as she hugs me "Yay we are going to San Francisco."

I sigh and pry her off of me "Let's keep going. First we need to pack our stuff."

She quickly runs out of the room "Yeah we need to pack and maybe we can have some fun there and stay for a couple of days."

I look at her "Have fun there?! We are going there on a very important mission we shouldn't be side tracked to go and have some fun!"

She walks back out looking at me sternly "We are having fun there whether you like it or not."

I stare into her eyes and she gives an angry glare back at me and we stare at each other for about 5 minutes

I break the glare "Fine we will be there for three days two days of fun and one day of mission"

She hugs me happily "Yay thank you John."

I sigh "Now go pack your bags with anything you want. I'll look into a hotel." I walk back to the iPad

She runs back into the room and as she was packing she finds that she doesn't have anything for pajamas. She thinks for a moment and goes into my closet pulling out a old tee shirt that's big on her and packing it. She runs back out with her bag "John I'm ready you go pack up."

I stay looking at the iPad "This hotel will get us close to the place we need to be but it's quite expensive"

She looks over my shoulder "hmm well what about that one" She points at another hotel

"It's quite the drive to anywhere actually"

She looks at me "I think we should just get the expensive one"

I nod "Yeah I think so as well"

She takes the iPad "Now go pack." She point at the room

I go back into my room and start to pack my things and I look around my room grabbing things I need and packing it up. I grab a couple shirts, pants, socks, underwear. I grab my small pocket gun and a few mags just in case of a fire fight. I also grab my toiletries bag. I look in the bags and whisper "Yup all the basics"

I walk back out and toss my bag in the corner and I look around not seeing Mia. This set off red flags in my head so I cautiously say "Mia you still here?"

She calls from the kitchen "Yeah I'm still here!"

I take a breath "Oh good I thought you left"

"Of course not silly. I'm cooking some food for us." She smiles as I walk in and she is putting on an apron "What do you want?"

I smile "Whatever you want to do."

She smiles back "Sounds great"

She shoos me off and i walk back into the living room and I see the couch stuffing "Well I can re-stuff the couch now." I bend down taking off the cushions and opening them up and start to stuff them with the couch stuffing until they were full and I set them back on the couch

"Diner is ready~!" Mia yells from the kitchen as she takes out grilled cheeses

I hop up as I put the last cushion on "That looks great. Thanks"

"Your welcome. I hope they are good." She sets them down on the table and takes off the apron sitting down "Sit down so we can eat."

I sit next to her and look at her "Ok."

She looks back at me "Go on eat."

I look at it "Oh sorry I'm used to having Rose start to eat first. She insisted to cook for me but she was a bad cook."

She laughs lightly picking up her sandwich "Oh that's cute." She takes a bite as I start to eat

After a while of eating silently we finish and Mia grabs my plate "I'll wash these."

I follow after her "No you cooked I can clean."

She pulls a wooden spoon on me and I put my hands up and back away slowly "Ok I'll let you do it. Just put down the spoon."

She smiles and backs me to the couch and says "Stay there unless you want to get hit"

I nod and sit down on the couch and after about 5 minutes she comes behind me and hugs my head

"Oh hello there Mia." I look up at her

She smiles down at me "Hello."

"Since you're going to be staying here for a while you can use Rose's room for your room."

She pouts cutely "But what if I get scared at night? What if I have a nightmare? You did say that I'll probably die on this adventure."

I sigh "Then you can be like the little child you are and crawl into my bed with me."

She laughs lightly and smacks my head "You are a real twit you know."

"You're not much better you know."

She walks around and sits next to me noticing the couch was restuffed "Oh someone has been working."

I nod "I took the advantage of time when you were cooking."

She looks around as the appartment was a bit dirty "Now only if you did that with the apartment. This place is a disaster."

I get a call. It was my job. I pick it after saying "Crap I forgot all about work today. Hello. Yeah I'm really sorry. You see it's my...yeah I can come in now. Ok...Bye." I hang up and look at Mia "I have to go to work you don't take anything out of this apartment or call anyone from this apartment phone. Ok."

She smiles "And if I do."

"Then you're going to get kicked out of the operation and get shot."

She nods at the word 'shot' "yeah I understand. Can I make calls on my cell though."

I nod "As long as it isn't the police. You can't trust them."

She nods again in understanding "It just going to be some of my friends that I ditched at the beach."

I get up and walk out of the door.

I come in after a long day at work and it was really dark. I check my phone. It reads 12:33 AM.

"Great I worked another double shift without knowing. I should really pay attention to the time more."

I go into the apartment and of course it's dark and quiet. I seance Mia was in Rose's room sleeping. I sigh in relief and go to check on her. To little surprise I see her sleeping in the bed curled up in a small ball. She stirs and wakes.

"John...is that you." She says slowly and sleepily

I think quickly and say "Shhh...This is a dream."

She nods and falls back asleep saying "Ok tell me when John comes home."

I laugh lightly and quietly shut the door going to my own room to lay down. I pull off my shirt and lay down looking at the ceiling.

"Why couldn't I stop them from getting her. Why didn't I save her. Damn it she is in danger because of me. Why can't I never do anything right. Whatever tomorrow we will work more on that."

I turn over and go to sleep.

The next morning I wake from another dream. I must've been screaming since Mia was next to me shaking me yelling "JOHN WAKE UP IT'S JUST A NIGHTMARE! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!"

I groan and sit up "Stop shaking me Mia."

She sighs and puts her hands on her hips "Someone was dreaming of me though. You were just screaming my name and Rose. Over and over again."

I hold my head "Sorry for scaring you. This happens often."

She shakes her head "I would be surprised if it didn't. You have been though a lot and you are bound to go though more." She blushes and then leans over and kisses my head

I sit on the edge of my bed "Let get on the road so we can get Rose."

She nods "I already have all of your things packed into your truck."

I look at her confused "I left my truck at the beach. How did one, you know which truck was mine, and two, unlock it and get it back here."

She smiles and laughs "I had my friends bring me back down to the beach and I took your keys and checked every vehicle until I found it."

I get up and shrug "All's well ends well" I pause for a second "I guess."

She walks out of my room and to the door "Hurry up John let's go."

I walk out to her and out the door quickly waking up "OK OK let's go."

We walk out to the truck and get in it quickly heading out to the freeway and to San Francisco

We get to the hotel and Mia quickly jumps out and goes to grab our things and I walk back grabbing my bag. I then walk to the front office as she clings to my arm. I ring the bell and a man walks out from the back, looks at us and smiles and gives us a key thats has the code '4C' stamped on it without saying a word.

I walk out and shrug "Well that was easy." I walk towards the elevator and stairs. "Our room is on the third floor. You want to take the stairs or the elevator?"

Mia smiles and says "Elevator. My bags are a bit heavy to go upstairs."

I got to the elevator and it was tapped off and had a handmade sign reading "Elevator is out of service use stairs -"

We both sigh and I look at the stairs then back at Mia "You want me to carry your bags."

She giggles and shakes her head "No I want you to carry me. You'll be my elevator."

I smile and shrug getting down so she can climb on my back and i start to walk up the stairs

"Your really light. You should probably eat some more food." I say to her

She smacks my head "It's not my fault that you're really muscular."

I laugh as we get to our floor and I walk to the room opening it. Mia gets off my back and the first thing she does is jump and lands on one of the beds on her back.  
"Ahhh this feels good" she says as she smiles and bounces on the bed "It's so soft and fluffy."

I sit on the other bed and she rolls over looking at me and whines "Hey...who said you get your own bed."

"Oh what do you want me to do sleep on the floor." I look at her

She smiles as a slight blush forms "No I want you to sleep in my bed with me."  
I start to blush and nod "I could do that"  
She looks at me and starts to panic "It's not that I want to be mean I just feel safer when you hold me, and plus I can comfort you if you start to have a nightmare so you don't wake up the neighbors and they call security on us."

I nod and slide my bag to the other bed "Which side do you want?"

She smiles and lays down on the left "This side."

"Ok I'll take the right side." I peak out of the window "Hey they have a pool."

She bolts up and to the window "REALLY! AW AND I DIDN'T PACK MY SWIMSUIT!"

I smile at her "But I got money and we are in the middle of market central; I think we can pull something off."

She turns and hugs me squealing "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I go to walk out of the door "Come on before it gets dark."

She follows behind me closely "See your not the monster you said you were. Your human but you just need a little bit of different attention than others."

I look back at her "Yeah yeah I guess so."

She runs and jumps onto my back "You know it's true but you want to deny it."

I laugh and grab her legs "I am never in the moment though. My mind is in war mode all the time."

She giggles as she touches my gun that I put on "I guess I can call you war boy." I walk past the truck and to a bus stop and she whines lightly "Why aren't we taking your truck?"

"The public transportation in this place it amazing" I say as the light car comes up "We will take it until first street then make our way back to the hotel looking at the shops on the way."

She smiles and gets off my back and onto the light car and I follow after her and pay for the trip and I see her sitting down and patting the seat next to her "Come on war boy. You should sit before the bus goes."

I go and sit next to her and she leans on me holding onto my arm kinda tightly so I look at her "You're going to cut the circulation out of my arm if you squeeze much tighter."

She looks up and instead of smiling she looks somewhat scared "S-s-sorry I'm a bit claustrophobic."

I quickly hold her gently "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know you were claustrophobic."

She loosens her grip and sighs lightly "Don't worry just hold me like you are right now."

I nod and stay in the same position "We are almost to first street" I pull the cord for getting off on the next stop then get up still holding her

She breaths into my chest as she stays calm better and we get off and she takes a deep breath of fresh air "Ok I'm better."

I smile and let go of her "You want to walk back now?"

She nods and grabs onto my arm more lovingly now "Let's go"

I start to walk down the street and Mia looks at all the shops looking for a swim shop "There should be one somewhere around here"

She spots one and starts to pull on my arm pointing at it "There it is. There it is." She starts trying to run while dragging me but fails "Come on hurry up."

I smile and keep walking "Ok we are going there."

She smiles and as we get there she lets go of my arm and goes to look around and so do I as I try to find something to swim in

"I found something" Mia says as she quickly walks by and to the counter then I give her some money so she can pay for it and I grab some trunks to swim in

After she pays for the swim stuff she hands me the bag, "Will you be a good guy for me and carry this bag?"

I laugh lightly and take it, "I'm not all just cold and war...but I've seen things." I say my voice changing making Mia laugh

"Ok war boy, let's go back to the hotel."

I nod and we start to walk back. It starts to get dark and most people go inside. We turn a corner and a guy with a knife confronts us.

"Drop the bag and your wallets and anything valuable before I stab you and your girlfriend here."

Mia gets scared and starts to reach for her wallet but I stop her. I drop the bag and slowly walk up to the mugger saying "you really must enjoy making people's lives miserable huh?"

"Yeah that's how I get paid so I can pay rent." He replied a little confused

"And what would happen if someone fought back from your "attacks"; if I can even call it that." I say getting in arms reach

"I stab 'em." He replies as he swishes his knife around "Now drop your money or your gettin' stabbed."

I quickly punch him right in the throat and it makes him cough and start to choke lightly as he drops his knife. I grab him as I kick up the knife pinning him to the wall.

"DON'T YOU EVER TRY TO MUG SOMEONE AGAIN,OR GOD HELP ME…"

I get cut off by Mia "JOHN...STOP!"

The mugger looks terrified and I sigh lightly letting him go. He quickly runs off and I pick up the bag and go back to her side saying "Sorry about that...I had to do what I had to do."

She looks away from me as if she is angry but slowly she starts to snicker and laugh "You made that guy pee himself."

I look back at her chuckling a bit "Well I am a pretty scary guy."

We get back to the hotel and she dashes upstairs and into the room closing it behind her. I eventually get there to see her asleep on the bed in a little ball. I smile and drape the blanket over her as I sit on the other bed. She stirs slightly and mumbles something rolling over and opening her arms as if she knew I wasn't there. I sigh and lay down with her and she snuggles in with me.

I wake up with a start making Mia, who was already up, jump and she looks at me

"I see someone is up." She giggles lightly and walks over to me hugging me "I'm going to go take a shower then we can do something fun today."

I sit up and rub my eyes "Or we can go save Rose today. She is still waiting for us."

Mia starts walking for the bathroom "Well when we do save her we would have to skip town ASAP. That would take a day of fun away."

I sigh knowing I was beat "Oh ok then. What do you want to do"

She gets in the bathroom and closes the door yelling through the wall "We can always go down to the pier and look around there."

"How do you know everything around here. Yesterday you didn't even know how good the public transportation was until I told you."

"I researched things to do in San Francisco and that was the main thing that showed up."

"Ok but we have to be careful. We don't know who is around here."

The shower goes off as Mia finishes and she walks out in a tank top and jeans she brought in "Yeah we do. Now go take a shower."

I grab some clothes and go into the bathroom closing the door and turning on the water. I wash up quickly and get out slipping on my clothes and walking back out to Mia who is patiently waiting on the bed.

"You ready?" she pops up as I walk out

I get my cap and put it on along with my sunglasses "Yeah I'm ready." I start to head for the door and I walk out with her. As we walk out I turn to her and say "You wanna take public transportation or my truck?"

She clings to my arm "Let's take public transportation. That was fun last time."

I smile and start to walk down the stairs and out to the tram stop as we wait for the tram to come by which soon it does and we get on and sit down. Mia leans on me and plays with the brim of my hat saying "Why do you need this hat. It covers up your amazing hair."

"My amazing hair is one of my most outstanding features of me. I want to hide it so I don't get caught."

She giggles and plays with my hat more "I guess so then. Oh I should've probably try hiding myself since I did the whole suit thing."

I nod "Don't worry we could get you a hat and sunglasses when we get to the pier."

She smiles and leans into me more. The tram stops and I look out at the pier nudging her and we get off. We walk down the pier and the first shop I see with hats and sunglasses I buy a hat and sunglasses handing it to Mia who puts them on and smiles at me. She takes my hand which sends chills down my spine. I keep walking and we walk around for a while going into shops but not really buying anything. Mia sees a glass maze and her eyes light up.

"Ohhh~ a maze. Can we go, Can we go, Can we go!" She says pulling on my arm much like a small child

I look at it and my mind goes blank again and my face goes pale just looking at the poster saying "The Glass Maze." I try to say something but nothing comes out. I start to shake violently. Then Mia pops up in front of the poster breaking my line of sight as she says "Um John are you ok? You don't look to good."

I slowly start to come back but it was too late. I was going to be sick. I cover my mouth and run to the edge of the pier leaning over and vomiting into the ocean. Mia looks at me in shock and slowly walks over rubbing my back lightly as she repeats herself "John are you ok?"

I slowly stand back up and compose myself then I nod "We can go into the maze if you want."

She puts her hands on her hips "No I don't think we should. You just vomited just looking at the poster of the maze. How do you think your going to do inside the maze. You could have a mental breakdown and I'll have to drag you out. I think we should just go home. There is a pool there and we could swim."

I nod lightly and sigh in relief "Good I didn't really want to go through the maze anyways."

She giggles "Then why did you say that we could go through if I wanted to? Are you saying that you would go face your fears for me?"

I smile but don't do anything as I walk away from the poster "Let's just not think about going through a maze again ok?"

She nods and takes my hand again "Ok. No more mazes, and I'm not going to ask why because it seems like a long story."

I nod as we go down the pier and a shop intrigues me. It was a knives and swords shop. I start to walk to it saying "Ooh~ knives. I could use me another knife." and I walk in Mia following closely behind me.

I see a pair of push knives and I smile looking at the attendant saying "How much for the push knives here."

"$75.50" The attendant says in a slightly gruff voice

I pull out my wallet and pay for the knives in cash and he takes the knives and puts them in a sheath handing it to me

"Thanks for your time" He says as I walk out straping the sheath to the inside of my jeans.

"John did you really need those knives?" Mia says in a slight whine

I nod and say, "Yeah my other one is getting dull. Plus these are more discreet and easier to use for me."

She sighs and grabs onto my arm "Well I guess you can have them."

We get back on the tram and we head back up to the hotel where Mia, once again, dashes upstairs and into the room. I get in there and I don't see her or the bag of swim suits but my swim suit is on the bed. I change into it and walk back out to the pool where I dive in and start to swim. After a little bit Mia walks out in her bikini and jumps in next to me. I stop swimming and look at her smiling.

"So that's why you disappeared. You should really stop doing that. It puts me on the edge." I say in a teasing way

She splashes me and responds, "Hey it's not my fault that you walk slowly."

I splash her back and we go back and forth for a while until she tackles me under the water. I come back up and move back to the wall. She kisses me softly and giggles lightly. I then splash her and duck under water moving away from her popping up a bit further away from her.

"Come get me Mia~" I say teasing her

She pouts and starts to swim to me but I duck under and swim away from her again. She continues to follow me and I swim past her so she quickly reaches under and grabs my ankle and pulls me up.

"Ha gotcha." She says and sticks her tongue out at me.

"Aww~ dang I got caught." I frown and laugh lightly

She pulls on my arm and pulls me towards the edge "Come on let's go inside before it gets dark. We don't want to happen what happened last time."

I smile and get out with her and she walks back upstairs and I follow her up. We get to the room and Mia just lays on the bed after she dries off without changing to some normal clothes. I walk into the bathroom and change and when I come out Mia is on the phone and I hear her say "Yeah I want a pepperoni pizza. $5, great that will do. Thank you~ Bye~"

I look at her and sit next to her saying "What did you do?~"

"I ordered a pizza for us."

"So someone is hungry?"

She nods and giggles lightly then lays back stretching out. I smile and grab the Ipad and go over the plan and schematics one more time. She sits back up and turns off the Ipad.

"Stop overthinking it. We are going to do fine.~" She says softly

I look at her and smile "Sorry but it's going to keep me up a night."

"I could help with that." She keeps talking softly

"How can you do that?" I smile and respond

She smiles "You're going to have to wait until the pizza gets here before you get it."

I pout lightly and it makes Mia laugh. She kisses my cheek and gets up as the door is knocked on and she gives a $5 bill to the person grabbing the pizza and closing the door.

"Here we go" She says as she walks back over

I get up and take a slice quickly starting to eat "MMM~ that's good."

She giggles and takes a slice "You seem more hungry than me."

I nod "My wings gives me a higher metabolism than most people; even your metabolism is lower than mine and you are really skinny."

She nods and takes a slice sitting on the bed "Well that's good to know." She runs her hands on my wings and it moves with her hand and she giggles

After the pizza is finished I lean back and lay down on the bed yawning "Oh I'm so tired."

She smiles and lightly pets my head "Just go to sleep"

I slowly fall asleep and she smiles pulling me up so I lay fully on the bed and she moves up against me falling asleep as well.

Chapter 5

The Execution

I wake up with Mia having her arms wrapped around me tightly. I try to move out of her arms but she just pulls me in tighter and groans.

"Mia you have to wake up. We need to get ready to save Rose." I whisper at her as she groans again  
"5 more minutes." She says as she rubs one of her hands on my face

"Then at least let me get up." I say to her and she lets go of me and curls up into a ball. I smile and get up and start to pack everything up. I grab my gun holster and put it on my belt then put on the security suit. Mia stirs and looks at me then gets up pulling up one of her straps.

"You seem ready to go." She says

I toss her a suit saying "Well we got to get a move on. We don't have much more time to do this." She puts the suit on over her swimsuit and I look out the window "Hey look at this." I point out of the window at many other people in the same suit "That's our entry ticket there."

She grabs my hand "Then there is no time to lose." She says pulling me out of the door. We get there and we get in the crowd waiting for the bus to come which it does soon. Mia's grip tightens lightly as we enter and as we enter we are handed a AR15 rifle. We are told to stand in line and she stands behind me as we move along.

We get there and everyone gets off entering the facility at the same time then dispersing to their assigned posts. I nudge Mia and we go down a downhill hallway that leads to the holding rooms. About halfway down I hear crying. It's a girl crying. I already knew who it was. It was Rose. I quickly start to walk faster but Mia grabs my arm and motions for me to calm down. I nod and slow down again as we reach the door and it opens for us and I look around seeing Rose in a cage.

I walk over and hit the cage with the butt of my AR "Hey be quiet in there." She immediately looks up and brightens up smiling and I take off my helmet "Hello Rose." Mia tosses me the keys and I grab them unlocking her cage and Rose immediately hugs me.

After a little bit Mia takes her helmet off and clears her throat "Guys this family reunion is great and everything but we need to go before the alarms…" The alarms go off "...off." The doors lock magnetically and I grab the AR and Mia looks at me saying "What are you doing?"

"Hacking the door." I smile and shoot out the glass and the door open up again "Come on."

We dash through the hall and guards come up against and I drop to a knee quickly taking out the guards. This takes all of my ammo and I look to Mia "I need a mag!" Mia fumbles with her guns and managed to get the mag out and she tosses it to me. I catch it and quickly reload the gun.

We run through to the lobby and there was already many guards there. I dive to some cover and pop up shooting multiple guards. I duck down again and move along popping somewhere else to take out more. After a little longer the lobby is littered with dead guards and I toss the AR and take off my suit.

"Come on through the front door." I shoot the glass and open the door "Rose you can still fly right?" I say looking back at her

She nods and unfold her wings "Yeah let's go."

Mia runs to me and I put her on my back and run to a low flight quickly gaining altitude. Rose flies nearby me and once again a large gun is readied. I start to swerve and swoop around erratically as I try to dodge the bullets but it wasn't enough. I feel a sharp pain in my lower back and my legs go parazised. Mia screams and holds tightly to me as I start to drop.

"ROSE TAKE MIA SOMEWHERE SAFE." I yell to Rose and she grabs Mia's arms and I fall fast hitting the ground

"Rose take me back to him...he isn't going to survive without help...ROSE PLEASE TAKE ME BACK TO HIM!" pleads Mia and she starts to thrash around and kick her feet

"NO we can't do it. It's either him or all of us." She says as she slowly makes her way to safety and grabs Mia by the hand "Now take us to the hotel you were staying at and we will take John's truck home."

Her and Mia start to run until they get into the city. They walk back to the hotel and they get in my truck. Mia drives Rose back to the house silently. When they get there Mia immediately walks to my room and lays down on my bed crying. She takes off the suit and pulls the blankets over her. Rose goes to her room and does the same.

I lay there and guards quickly surround me. They look at me and kick me lightly. They think I'm dead and they pick me up. Inside I scream in pain but outside I don't move an inch. They put me in a room on a cold metal table face down. They sedate me then work on me. When I wake up I'm in a jail cell on a wooden bed. I sit up and look around. I see a guard that has a ring of keys. He isn't in reach so I start to make noise. The guard walks up and hits the cage.

"Hey quiet down in there" He says as he hits a nightstick on the door

I quickly rush up and grab his head smashing it on the bars. He falls over and I move his body so I can grab the keys. I start to try out the keys then one of them works and I unlock the door. I strip the guard and put on his suit and lock him into my cell. I check the time. 6:00 Pm; it's time to leave for the day. I start to go to the front like the rest of them. We all get on the tram and they drive us back to San Francisco. I walk back to the hotel and walk into the room. I change my cloths from the suit I was wearing. I had to get back home. I walk back out with mine and Mia's bags. I start to walk down the road. I couldn't fly because there was still too many people. I start to walk for the highway and it soon becomes midnight. I start to fly and I make it to the edge of town soon. I walk down my town as I make my way home. About noon I get home and I open the door. I am immediately greeted with a gun pointed at me.

"That's not how you welcome a hero returning alive." I say tiredly as I drop the bags

"JOHN!" Mia says excitedly as she jumps up and goes and hugs me "HOW DID YOU SURVIVE I SAW YOU DIE!"

"Well I didn't die and they also thought I died but I know how they have such a large guard count. They bring people back to life." I reply back "They worked on me and revived me. Then they threw me in a jail cell and I got out."

She hugs me again and then lets go kissing me then she blushes brightly and breaks off. At that moment Rose walks up smiling then slaps me hard yelling "WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! WE THOUGHT THAT WE WOULD HAVE TO FORGET YOU! MIA THOUGHT SHE WAS GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF ME BY HERSELF! THEN YOU COME IN HERE AND SAY 'THAT'S NO WAY TO TREAT A HERO RETURNING ALIVE!' DO YOU THINK YOU'RE A HERO! DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO THINK YOU LOST SOMEONE FOREVER THEN FOR THEM TO SHOW UP OUT OF THE BLUE!"

I look at her and say calmly "Yes I have. It's the worst feeling. I am no hero but I did save you."

She slaps me again "I COULD'VE GOTTEN OUT MYSELF! I'M NOT A HELPLESS LITTLE GIRL WHO NEEDS SAVING! IF YOU DIDN'T COME I WOULD'VE GOTTEN MYSELF OUT! I DIDN'T NEED YOU AT ALL!" She storms off to her room and slams her door

Mia looks at me then down the hall at Rose's door then back at me as she tries to comprehend what happened "What just happened?" She asks still comprehending

I look down the hall "I guess she is mad at me." I sigh lightly "She'll come around. I'm going to go take a shower." I walk down the hall to my door and Mia runs after me

"John you might not want to go in there." She says grabbing my hand that's on the doorknob "Let's just say I had a temper tantrum when you were gone."

I laugh lightly "How bad could it be?" I say opening up the door to see my room an absolute disaster "Oh that's...not that bad." I start to go into my room and find some clean cloths "Just need a little bit of cleaning up to do." I walk to the bathroom and go to take a shower

As I take a shower Rose walks to the kitchen and starts to cook a lunch for her and Mia. Mia walks to the table and sits down as I get out of the shower. I sit down and Rose comes out setting a plate in front of Mia then going back in to get her own plate. She gets her plate and sits down. I frown and get up walking into the kitchen to make myself something. I hear Mia scoot to Rose and she whispers to her about something. I come back in and sit down and start to eat. Rose quickly finishes eating and goes back to her room without cleaning any plates or anything and she locks her door.

"Rose doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that you're here." Mia says almost starting to cry "I wouldn't know why. It's great that you're here."

I shrug replying "I dunno why. I guess she wanted me dead."

"Maybe she started to mourn for you but when you walked in that fell apart."

I stand up and start to take the plates "Well she'll come around."

Mia comes up behind me and take the plates "I'll take these you just sit down and relax. You just barely got home today." She giggles lightly and I walk over to the couch sitting down

Rose opens her door and she walks out crying and walks over to me opening her arms for a hug. I smile and get up and hug her and she starts to cry saying "I'm sorry brother but I thought you were dead and when you came back alive I was just shocked so I did the only thing I know to do and I got mad at you. Please forgive me. I don't want you do die at all."

I smile and kneel down to her level and smile "I forgive you. I knew you didn't want me dead because you absolutely adore me." I pull her back in and hold her

We stand there for a while and Mia comes up behind me and hugs me from behind. We stand there for a while as we enjoy that we are all together. Little did we know that outside at the school they were making a new set of bird people and a whole new type of enemy.

To Be Continued In the system book 2: The Climax…


End file.
